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Organized Crime

﻿Prohibition: The Rise of Organized Crime Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution took away the license to do business from the brewers, distillers, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. The leaders of the prohibition movement were concerned with the drinking behavior of Americans and made an attempt to improve the country. Unfortunately, they were about to discover that making Prohibition the law had been one thing; enforcing it would be another. Therefore, causing a major problem in the United States. The result of prohibition led to higher crime rates, excessive violence, and a rise to powerful criminals whose vast sums of money by bootlegging started the concept of organized crime. Immigration was a main contributor of the birth of organized crime in the prohibition era. The article “Mafia” reports that, “The number of Italian immigrants soared from 20,000 to 250,000 between 1880 and 1890, by 1910 that number jumped to 500,000 immigrants. “Mafia” further mentions that, “There was a wave of Italians that flocked to America during the 19th and 20th century, most of these citizens were law-abiding, but some were criminals who formed neighborhood gangs”. Along with the arrivals from the Italians, Woodiwiss adds, bootlegging unexpectedly presented second generation Jews, Sicilians, Poles, Slavs who had opportunities to climb the criminal hierarchy (8). David Okrent points out in his book, “While population tripled, the population’s capacity for beer had increased. Americans drank 36 gallons in 1850; by 1890 consumption had exploded to 855 million gallons” (545). Okrent declares, “Immigration was responsible, the German’s brought beer, but also a generation of men who knew how to make, sell, and market alcohol” (547). During this era, these ethnic gangs became skilled at smuggling, money laundering, bribing public officers, and most importantly creating a bootlegging liquor business (“Mafia”). The article “Organized,” article states, “The bootlegging industry was highly profitable, this fueled many gang wars and the Mafia”. Thus, Immigration influenced the start of organized crime. More importantly, the 18th amendment fueled gangs to launch the bootlegging industry. Powerful criminals called gangsters arose from prohibition creating empires of illegal liquor businesses to supply Americans with the banned substance. As David Okrent states in his book The Last Call, “The liquor industry wasn’t dead, of course; a new version, this one illegal, underground would soon emerge with the birth of the dry utopia” (2295). Many Americans found ways to violate the law and satisfy their craving of alcohol. Witwer mentions in his article, people could drink at illegal business called speakeasies. Author David Okrent states, “It didn’t take much more than a bottle and two chairs to make a speakeasy, but once those fundamentals were in place the permutations were endless” (4055). There was a great demand for liquor and someone had to fulfill and supply this illegal product (Witwer), and “It was organized crime who supplied the booze” (Nash). Prohibition spurred the growth of crime groups who violated the law by supplying this illicit product to Americans and the illegal market of United States. Prohibition is the leading cause to why organized crime became a huge problem in the 1920’s. The prohibition and the economic depression had a huge impact on people, causing an atmosphere of despair and criminal activity (Nash). Nash points out further in his article, “Jobs began to be scarce and people needed to find a way to provide for their families, gangsterism was dangerous, but an easy way to make money”. Alcohol was no longer legal and people turned to gangsters, who took on the bootlegging industry, therefore providing them with liquor...

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...Organizedcrime has always been occupied with a negative label. Perhaps this is due to the constantly changing environment in America as well as the social state of its homeland, Europe. Our society is convinced that the so-called Mafia is a family of pure criminals, pimps, and murderers. Whatever the opinion, there is no doubt that the Mafia played a big part in the history of America and the way Americans view crime today. &quot;The origins of the secret society known as the Mafia are believed to be as old as the 9th century&quot; (Mafia History). During the 9th century, the Mafia's main purpose was to strengthen themselves against enemies, which invaded their homeland in Sicily. It was supposed to create a strong feeling of togetherness between all Sicilians. &quot;This idea of family was carried through in the structure of the organization, which had a strong hierarchical layout&quot; (Mafia History). The Mafia is said by many to have perhaps the best system of power, than any other group or government known today. One can compare a physical representation of the family almost to a family tree dated all the way back through many generations. Certain people operated the system, but without the help of the people with the less power, the Mafia would be very weak. To put it another way, a leader cannot lead without followers, and the followers cannot follow without leaders. This is why the Mafia was hard to overcome. Although when...

...OrganizedCrime
By Patrick Grant
Kaplan University
CJ350-03
Mitchell Sowell
Due April 9, 2013
In the United States of America, Hollywood has made billions of dollars with movies about organizedcrime. Movie producers are keen on the sense of the public’s infatuation of mob or mafia movies which depicts organizedcrime. Blockbuster hits such as The Godfather, Good Fellas, Casino and Scarface has mesmerized movie goers for years. The fact is organizedcrime in America has a deep and violent history. Massive murders, a lot of money, police and government corruption has been the heartbeat of organizedcrime in this country for decades. Let’s examine the history of organizedcrime in America.
According to the FBI, organizedcrime is defined as “any group having some manner of a formalized structure whose primary objective is to obtain money to illegal activities. Some groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened violence, corrupt public officials, graft, extortion, and generally have a significant impact in the people in their locales, region, or the country as a whole.” (Abadinsky, 2009) According to Abadinsky, organizedcrime is limited to an exclusive membership, runs off a hierarchical rank structure, does not look...

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The 1920s was time of music and literature but it was also a decade of crime. This rise of illegality was not random but caused by prohibition and immigration. The advancement of guns also helped gangs progress. One of the most important figureheads of this era was Al Capone. Organizedcrime flourished during the 1920s in America.
The typical Italian mafia stereotype has some truth since our mafia was strongly influenced my Italy. During the mid-1800s the Sicilian mafia grew exponentially in Italy, but this quickly came to an end. At the end of the 19th century the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini attacked the crime organizations of Italy (Mafia in the United States). Sicilian Mafiosi decided to escape to America to continue their illegal ways. In just New York in went from 20,000 in 1880 to 500,000 by 1910 (Mafia in the United States).
In 1919, the 18th amendment was passed starting the Prohibition era and sparking a wave of crime. The 18th amendment also known as Prohibition banned the consumption, manufacturing, and sale of alcohol. This left a major market unclaimed with a lot of potential profit. This market also gave Sicilian Mafiosi another reason to immigrate. The mafia eventually took over the alcohol business using their skills of skilled a smuggling and bribery to get around the amendment (Mafia in the United States).
The advancement of guns thanks to World War helped the mafia...

...To help understand how organizedcrime works and what definition can be better applied so as to reduce, if not eliminate this issue, I will examine and relate the definition of organizedcrime as given by Abadinsky and Cressey. Each holds a lot of similarities with the other but certain distinctions between the two set them apart which will be discussed to better comprehend how organizedcrime, and those involved in it, operate.
First, I will look at Abadinsky’s definition of organizedcrime which is that, “organizedcrime is a non-ideological enterprise involving a number of persons in close social interaction, organized on a hierarchical basis, with at least three levels/ranks, for the purpose of securing profit and power by engaging in illegal and legal activities” (Danis, Module 1, Slide 20). This definition sounds quite like that of a firm in a market in its aims at the very least; however, the word “non-ideological” sets it apart and makes it clear that all participants in organizedcrime are present for their own interest, which is basically getting quick money in whatever way they can. In Merton’s Theory of Anomie, he argued that due to the importance given to economic status, people keep the means in disregard as long as their wealth will grow (Danis, Module 3, Slide 6). According to...

...My perceptions of Organizedcrime.
To define organizedcrime organization and to understand the concept of organizedcrime organizations is to realize that they have been around for centuries and they have been documented through our American history and media sources. Organizedcrime organizations are a group of people who form an alliance to engage in illegal crimes within their communities to obtain financial wealth for their organizedcrime organization. By criminal behavior of bribery, extortion, violence and etc. To gain control of political powers, business, law enforcement and the public within society so their organizedcrime organization can stay in business. The mob boss and the chain of command or the hierarchy in organizedcrime organizations use the criminal behavior traits that demand respect by the use of violence to intimidate. The American public or public figures who have important jobs and positions within society including in the criminal justice system. Organizedcrime organization have no respect for the criminal justice system and the laws of our country to achieve their goals and to become wealthy and to...

...Introduction
Organizedcrime can be a number of different types of things. According to Lyman & Potter, (2007), “The NCIS describes organizedcrime as having four salient attributes: An organizedcrime group contains at least three people; The criminal activity the group engages in is ongoing and indefinite in duration; The group is motivated by a desire for profit or power; and, The group commits serious criminal offenses”(p.15). The group we chose is the American Mafia families of New York City. This mafia family has been the top of organizedcrimes in New York City since 1930. There are five different families and they all have their own kind of power over the part of the city they live in.
OrganizedCrime Group Analysis
The America Mafia families of New York have one goal in mind and this goal is to make a profit off the weakness of other individuals in our society. The American Mafia family of New York has killed an estimated number of 400 people over a period of time. The American mafias ran several illegal operations that included charging high interest for loans and hard paybacks for not returning the money they borrowed. These mafia families describe themselves as more of businessmen instead of gangsters because they ran a lot illegal businesses. The families killed or do other criminal activities to make a...

...Personal Perception of OrganizedCrime
In answering this question of what Angie’s personal perception of organizedcrime, it takes me back to the days of organized groups that united for financial gain, control over business, law enforcement, the public and anyone or anything that they could rule. Organizedcrime brings about change in a community, hurt, danger, and sometimes death. When thinking of organizedcrime it takes us back to the days of the Mafia. The days of Al Capone comes to mind more then any other organized criminal. This gave a perception as to what organizedcrime consists of and this is how viewed.
The alien conspiracy theory posits that organizedcrime (the Mafia) gained prominence during the 1860s in Sicily and that Sicilian immigrants are responsible for the foundations of U.S. organizedcrime, which is made up of twenty-five or so Italian-dominated crime families (Lyman and Potter, 2007).
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone born January 17, 1899, died January 25, 1947, was a Chicago American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. Prohibition-era was when in the United States, from 1919 and 1933, the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages banned because of the...

...OrganizedCrime Group Analysis
Team A
CJA 384
OrganizedCrime Group Analysis
In this paper it was asked of us as a team to give an in-depth historical analysis of an organizedcrime group. With this class being about organizedcrime one would think to write about mobsters, but we decided to think outside the box. Even though when thinking of organizedcrime the first thought is The Italian Mafia and groups of that sort, one has to remember that organizedcrime comes in many different forms of organizations. From this class we were able to understand more on organizedcrime and who can be classified as an organizedcrime organization. Organizations that one would never really think of as having ties to organizedcrime may have some involvement. By having knowledge of how organizedcrime began we have a better understanding of where it is today. So as a team we decided to research the organization The Aryan Brotherhood.
Originally named the Diamond Tooth Gang in 1967, a group of men gathered in the prison yard of San Quentin, to form their own racially motivated prison gang. These men mostly consisted of neo-Nazi, white supremist, long haired biker types. They formed an alliance to...